Israel Votes for U.N. Forces in Middle East; Arab States Abstain

Israel was among the nations who voted here today in favor of a resolution authorizing the expenditure, until the end of this year, of $9,500,000 for the operation of the United Nations Emergency Force stationed in the Middle East and in the Congo. The Arab states abstained from voting. The resolution was adopted by a roll-call vote of 79 in favor, 11 against and 17 abstentions.

The UN General Assembly will now decide to apportion the amount of $2,500,000 among all member states, in accordance with the regular scale of assessments for 1963. The $7,000,000 balance would be apportioned among member states in accordance with the regular scale, except that each “economically less developed country” would be assessed an amount calculated at 45 percent of its rate under the regular scale. This would be an adhoc arrangement for the present phase of this peace-keeping operation and would not constitute a precedent for the future, the draft resolution states.

The resolution lists the countries which are considered to be economically more developed, for the purposes of the apportionment. The Assembly would recommend that these states make voluntary contributions in addition to their assessments, in order to finance authorized expenditures in excess of the total amount assessed under this resolution, and would appeal to all other member states, in a position to assist to make similar voluntary contributions or to forego having their assessments calculated at the lower rate. The resolution states that voluntary contributions may be made in the form of services and supplies, acceptable to the Secretary-General, furnished for use by UNEF during this period.

In another resolution adopted by the General Assembly’s Administration and Budgetary Committee, by a vote of 91 in favor, 13 against, with 3 abstentions, the Committee approved the principle of collective responsibility in peacekeeping operations. Both Israel and the Arab states voted in favor of this resolution.